KIRKUS REVIEW

Popular technology guru
Carr (The Glass Cage: Automation and Us, 2014, etc.) offers a skeptical
chronicle of the wonders of the digital revolution.

Since 2005, the author
has kept running tabs on our high-tech age on his blog Rough Type,
where he considers and sometimes eviscerates the latest overblown claims of the
gods of Silicon Valley. In this bright, fun, telling book, he gathers 80
engaging blog posts from some 1,600 published through 2015, plus a selection of
essays and reviews from the Atlantic and elsewhere. “We may
blow kisses to agrarians like Jefferson and tree-huggers like Thoreau, but we
put our faith in Edison and Ford, Gates and Zuckerberg,” writes Carr. “It is
the technologists who shall lead us.” While tech leaders have promised a new
world (with Bill Gates “still pitching a ‘digital lifestyle’ that nobody
wants”), the author makes clear his own penchant for “tools for exploring and
enjoying the world that is.” He takes strong exception to innumerable claims
made for the internet: that it has liberated us from couch-potato lives
(“horseshit”), raised us to a higher consciousness, spurred serendipity, and
given us splendid gifts in Wikipedia (“a hodge-podge of dubious factoids”) and
Twitter (“the medium of Narcissus”). Occasioned by his own observations and a
close reading of new studies and books, Carr holds forth on major issues of the
past decade, including copyright, innovation, online courses, e-books, video
games, artificial intelligence, privacy, online sharing, automation, raising
the virtual child, and smartphones. Throughout, his emphasis is on the human
side of life in a digitized world. “The desire for privacy is strong; vanity is
stronger,” he writes of Facebook’s business model. And: “Who you are is what
you do between notifications.” Included are such notable essays as “Is Google
Making Us Stupid?” Some entries are slight, most others are nuanced and
satisfying.

A collection that reminds
us that critical thinking is the best way to view the mixed blessings of
rampant technology. A treat for Carr fans.

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